Cat in Japanese House Watches Garden by Dougdmelo
“… some fleas can carry disease-causing pathogens, such as the bacterium which causes bubonic plague .” (1)
While fleas are definitely not something to desire, please don’t panic. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Before you reach for some poisonous, and potentially harmful, flea repellent to douse your pets, home, and whole garden with, get the facts.
Combating Flea Risks
Below you’ll find information about the risks of fleas and suggestions on how to keep fleas from becoming a problem in your garden.
I have also resources to help you with flea treatment for your home and pets. Notes include information on how treatments affect children, pets, and beneficial garden organisms.
Cat Fleas, Dog Fleas, and Wildlife
The cat flea Ctenocephalides felis is the most problematic because it occurs on both cats and dogs, can bite humans, and can also feed on rats, chickens, oppossums, raccoons, and other wildlife, including cute bunnies. While the cat flea occurs worldwide, the dog flea is rare in the USA.
Problems From Cat Fleas
Cat fleas can cause the following health problems:
- significant allergies in both people and pets
- tapeworms can be carried by fleas and infect dogs or cats when the flea is eaten (hopefully people won’t eat fleas)
- murine typhus from the organism Rickettsia typhi – 43 people infected in Texas back in 2008
- bubonic plague – 18 cases per year in the USA recorded back in 2008
If you need to know more on these flea problems here is: flea allergy dermatitis at Dr Dan, flea tapeworm info at CDC, murine typhus outbreak info at CDC, and bubonic plague info at CDC.
How to Check for Fleas in Your Garden
You can check for fleas in your garden by wearing white socks or specially made knee-high white flannel flea sock traps which fit over your shoes. Fleas are attracted to the fabric and are easily visible. They get temporarily caught in the fabric and you can count them and assess the extent of your problem.
Tackling Fleas in Your Garden
Here are some ways to keep down the flea population in your garden and thus reduce the likelihood of them being brought into your home.
- Prevent pets from resting in places which are inaccessible, such as under your deck. If your cat or dog can get under your deck to rest, but you can’t, fleas can multiply in an area you can’t treat.
- Provide pets with washable bedding outdoors. Dogs which spend hours out of doors can be given washable bedding in their sheltered sleeping area, such as a doghouse. Washable blankets or mats are easiest to treat. Bedding should be washed at least once a week when infestations are bad. Hot water with soap or detergent kills all stages of fleas.
- Observe favorite pet resting spots. Cats and dogs usually have favorite places to rest. Know where these are and you can spot treat problem areas. It’s more cost effective, less work, and better for the environment and your family to spot treat.
- Nematodes are a good natural flea control choice if you want to treat your whole garden, including lawns, flower beds, and vegetable areas. Nematodes are safe for children, pets, plants, and beneficial soil organisms.
- Cedar is a natural flea repellent. However cedar only repels when it is fresh. Consider cedar mulch for paths where your pets like to lie rather than using non-cedar bark products.
- Drying or Flooding kills fleas when they are off animals. A temperature of above 103F for one hour kills flea larvae. Eggs and larvae are killed by heavy watering or by drying out moist areas.
- Insect Growth Regulator is a hormonal chemical specific to insects which prevents them developing into adults. It will not affect people, children, or pets but will affect beneficial insects. I G Regulator has precautions to adhere to during application and is poisonous to fish. It will not kill adult fleas and needs to be used early in the season or in conjunction with other control methods. Use it for spot treatment in the garden (it can also be used indoors, unless you have an aquarium).
- Insecticidal Soaps can be used to treat favorite pet resting spots. Use these only during high flea infestations and only on specific spots because they kill beneficial insects too.
- Diatomaceous earth is a natural non-toxic product which kills fleas by abrading their exoskeletons so that they dehydrate. However, diatomaceous earth is a lung irritant and will kill other insect species.
- Pyrethrins, pyrethrum, and synthetic pyrethroids are relatively safe plant-derived insecticides which can be used for spot treatment in the garden if other methods have failed. Call in professionals and ask them to use least-toxic or integrated pest management practices.
- DEET Insect Repellents are effective at preventing fleas from hitching a ride on clothing from your garden. They are not the best products for pets due to potential toxicity and should not be applied to your skin, or put on kids.
Resources
Least Toxic Flea Control from BeyondPesticides.org – more information on natural flea control in home and garden and on pets (click the link to download a 4 page pdf).
Insect Growth Regulator (I. G. flea control) information – how it works, precautions.
Gardens Alive sell some of the garden flea control products which I have explained above: I. G. Flea Control, Nematodes to Control Fleas in the Garden. They also sell flea traps, citrus pet shampoo, and oatmeal shampoo (recommended for pets with skin allergies and irritations).
You can find a number of natural flea repellent and other control products at Amazon.com.
(1) Common Sense Pest Control – least toxic solutions for your home, garden, pets and community, William Olkowski, Taunton, 1991.
What are you using for flea control? Are you treating your garden?
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If memory serves, most of the current natural reservoirs for the bubonic plague are prairie dogs and other rodents, so most of us probably don’t have much to worry about there, unless we’re living by a prairie dog town. Not that you wouldn’t have the best call-in-sick-to-work EVER. “Can’t come in. Black Death.”
UrsulaV´s last blog ..Eee! The system works!
As you say UrsulaV, we’re not all in danger of bubonic plague. Here is what the CDC site (link above) says:
“…human plague in the United States has occurred as mostly scattered cases in rural areas (an average of 10 to 15 persons each year). Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions: 1) northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado; and 2) California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada.”
I’ve seen signs at some National Parks saying that the ground squirrels carry plague, which was a bit freaky when I saw it. I mean, I thought that disease was extinct. But, given the incidence, I don’t think we should be worrying and dousing our gardens and pets for fear of plague. Allergies are more of a problem, as is the “ick” factor of fleas.
Yes, plague would be a good, original excuse for missing work!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bethe Almeras, Alison Kerr. Alison Kerr said: New Article – Natural Flea Control for Gardeners http://bit.ly/cQ1BEb (fleas are bad this year, protect your kids and pets) [...]
Hi Alison,
Great info and resources.
I didn’t know much about fleas til couple of years ago when our dear old dog suffered a great deal. The fleas were everywhere (we thought it was from a neighboring cat). It was really hard to deal with.
Your advice comes in handy in case we get another dog.
Manal´s last blog ..The Art of Slow
We have had to deal with a couple of infestations on the poor dog, since we take her camping with us. We have been having really good success lately, though, with a shampoo that has tea tree oil in it. We have not had any problems, since switching to that.
Roy Scribner´s last blog ..All Cargo Shorts are Not Created Equal
Fairly insightful publish Never believed that it was this simple after all I had spent a superior deal of my time looking for someone to explain this topic clearly and youre the only one that ever did that Kudos to you Keep it up